1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to safety enclosures of the type that increasingly are being referred to as "secondary containment buildings," namely walk-in storage structures that have walls and roofs that typically are formed from metal, that typically are used to store containers of "hazardous materials" such as cans of paint, drums of lubricant and the like, and that customarily are provided with sump-type "secondary containment" vessels into which spillage and leakage are directed for temporary collection and safe disposal. More particularly, the present invention relates to safety enclosures of modular construction that preferably employ wall panels and other components and assemblies that are protectively coated prior to final assembly, with wall panel components having complementary edge formations that extend vertically and connect with recess-carried framing members that rigidify and strengthen the walls of the resulting structures as well as providing columnar-like supports that extend between the base and roof assemblies, with the wall components and framing members preferably being bolted together to effect final assembly either at a factory or at sites where the enclosures are to be installed.
2. Prior Art
Increased emphasis is being placed on the importance of assuring that solvents, lubricants, paint related products and the like are handled and stored with adequate safeguards. Increasingly it is being recognized that even small spills and relatively minute leakages of the growing number of substances that are being referred to by the term "hazardous material" easily can detrimentally affect persons, property, plants, animals, ground water and other aspects of ecology and environment. Moreover, in view of increasing concern about the lasting nature of the adverse effects that can result from spills and unchecked leakage of hazardous material, these topics are receiving increasing attention by law-makers, by regulating agencies, and by those who have been elected to govern and to enforce laws and regulations.
In circumstances of heightened awareness and concern such as are described above, it is inevitable that those who have responsibility for the safe handling and/or storage of "hazardous materials" are being called upon to use only such equipment and techniques as have been duly "approved" and "tested" to assure that even small, inadvertent "spills" are contained, and that container leakage is caught, collected and confined until its cause can be ascertained and corrected, and until the leaked material can be processed for safe disposal. The use of safety enclosures that provide "secondary containment" increasingly is becoming mandatory for storing even relatively small quantities of solvent, paint, lubricants and the like, even in small businesses such as garages, repair shops, and the like.
While a number of proposals have been made in efforts to provide a variety of types of "secondary containment buildings," prior proposals have been characterized by a number of drawbacks, whereby the need for well-designed, versatile, multi-use safety enclosures continues to grow.
One drawback that has characterized many prior proposals for safety enclosures has been the need for structures that feature strong walls which provide easy-to-use connection points for mounting shelf brackets and other needed items such as electrical conduits and fixtures for hazardous-environment lighting, pipes and heads for sprinkler systems, and the like. It has proven not to be enough to simply provide a safety enclosure that has simply a strong floor, atop which containers can be positioned for storage. Rather, in addition to providing a strong floor, today's safety storage enclosure needs to provide strong walls having conveniently located, easy- to-use connection points for mounting shelf brackets and other devices at eye-level and at other suitable heights above the surface of the floor.
Versatility is needed in today's safety enclosure so that the needs that it has been purchased to immediately address can be well served, but also so that the unanticipated needs of tomorrow likewise can be accommodated to the fullest possible extent. Often a safety enclosure that has been purchased for resolving a first type of storage problem at a first location gets "passed down" for use in resolving a very different second type of storage problem at a second location. Frequently, this happens when a different, typically larger enclosure eventually is needed to again address the first problem at the first location. Longevity of service life, and a capability to be transported from place to place without likelihood of incurring damage during transport also are characteristics that are needed so that, as the character of the need for a safety enclosure at a particular location changes, the safety enclosure that already is installed there can be "passed down" to another department or sold to a new owner, whereby a full and appropriate measure of value and service can be gotten from the product. Many of the prior proposals for safety enclosures do not provide desirably long-lived, strong and portable units that permit their being successively redeployed during lengthy service lives.
Modularity and scaleability of product design also tend to be lacking in many prior proposals. Rather than to use combinations of modular bolt-together wall panels and wall-corner panels (together with "door panels" that can be substituted as needed for selected wall panels), many prior proposals use welded together, specially configured, non-modular components that are specially made for use in forming only one or a very limited number of sizes of safety enclosures.
In order for a wide range of safety enclosure sizes and capacities to be offered by any one manufacturer, the use of sets of "standardized" components that can be connected quite simply and securely by bolting them together is desirable. However, the safety enclosures of many prior proposals do not utilize and are not well adapted to utilize "standardized" components; and, in many instances, the strength of the resulting enclosures would be significantly diminished if reasonably priced, easily implemented fastening techniques (such as the use of threaded fasteners) were substituted for welding.
Even the character of the "secondary containment vessels" or "sumps" that are provided in many previously proposed safety enclosures leaves a great deal to be desired. Often, the sumps that have been provided by the manufacturers have a lesser total capacity (in comparison with the combined capacities of the containers that are intended to be stored within the enclosures) than is desired. If the sumps do not have a capacity to contain at least about twenty five percent of the combined capacities of the containers that are housed within the their associated enclosures, there is a danger that the level of protection that is afforded by the "secondary containment" will fail to meet needs that a particular enclosure quite likely may encounter during the course of a reasonable service life.
For these and other reasons, there remains a very genuine and real need for well-designed, heavy-duty, secondary containment enclosures that appropriately address today's increasing concern for the way in which "hazardous materials" are stored. Likewise, there remains a need for high quality safety enclosures that are of adequately versatile construction to permit their being suitably "passed down" from one form of service to another during the course of a reasonably lengthy service life.